Audubon articles from July 2007

Audubon archives from July 2007

Editor's note.
July 1, 2007... "Look around you, at today's world. Your house, your city. The surrounding land, the pavement underneath, and the soil hidden below that. Leave it all in place, but extract the human beings. How would the rest of nature respond if it were...

Audubon view.
July 1, 2007... My most vivid memories of spring, growing up in Minnesota, were the smell of lilacs blooming and the singing of eastern and western meadowlarks. Now, when I visit home, the lilacs are still abundant, but I rarely hear the familiar song of the...

Who's afraid of the big, bad wolf?(letters from our readers)(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2007... I couldn't believe that someone selected the two pictures of wolves on pages 50-51 of the May-June issue to go with an article that is so pro-wolf [Incite, "Back Off!"]! When I was teaching a unit on maligned animals in environmental science in...

The human touch.(letters from our readers)(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2007... In "Packing Up the Planet" ["Field Notes," March-April], Bob Grant writes about a "moon-based repository" of frozen DNA of all the earth's species for the purpose of repopulating in case of an environmental disaster on earth. Since an...

Sounding the alarm.(letters from our readers)(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2007... Re: "Sound Check" [May-June]: The current situation in Long Island Sound has a long history. My grandfather was an oysterman. He was one of 12 children; most of the males in his family made their living from the waters of the sound. Eventually...

Excuse me.(field notes)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... Cows have always burped. Active bacteria in the herbivores 'stomachs allow them to digest grasses and then expel the methane created in the process. When cows are overfed to increase dairy and meat production, the belching gets bad. Since...

"A" students.(field notes)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... Attention students! Did you know that getting an "A" on that next test might actually have something to do with whether your school makes the grade environmentally? Well, those who attend "green" schools tend to be healthier, have better class...

As high as an elephant's eye.(FARM BILL)
July 1, 2007... Despite a few ups and downs, corn prices over the past 20 years have been so low that it made sense for many farmers in the Midwest to let the federal government pay them to be conservationists. Instead of being planted in uneconomical row...

Ole Jose!(field notes)(beaver)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... Whispers of late-night tail slaps on the Bronx Zoo's millpond led to a young bachelor beaver recently being caught on video. The one- to two-year-old beaver, which has taken up residence on the banks of the Bronx River, is nicknamed Jose, after...

A knotty problem.(MIGRATION)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... The population of the rufa subspecies of the red knot, a midsized shorebird, has plummeted from 95,530 in the 1980s to a 2006 count of 13,445. Every year rufa knots migrate 20,000 miles round-trip between their wintering grounds on the southern...

Mustard greens.(field notes)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... Spicy mustard plants produce a slew of naturally occurring compounds, some similar to those in expensive commercial fumigants used to deter potato-damaging pests, according to recent studies. This, in turn, has researchers touting mustard as a...

Dream house.(field notes)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... The Mall in Washington, D.C., will be even more welcoming this October when 20 student teams from around the world compete to design and build the ultimate energy-efficient, solar-powered home. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, the...

Giving up the ghost?(THE IVORY-BILL)(Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology)
July 1, 2007... On a sunny early May morning in 2005, near the White River in Arkansas, David Sibley's heart began pounding when he glimpsed a large black-and-white woodpecker swoop into a leafy oak tree 100 yards away. It was unmistakable: the trailing edge...

A sea change.(MARINE CONSERVATION)
July 1, 2007... After eight years of stop-and-start policy making, a big chunk of central California's coastal waters go permanently off-limits for fishing this summer as part of the biggest network of marine preserves ever off the continental United States....

Hot momma.(field notes)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... The puffed chests seen strutting across beaches this summer have nothing on the greater sage-grouse that gather on display grounds in the western United States each year for an elaborate and competitive mating ritual. The males "fight and strut...

Bending a senator's ear: a young activist heads to the Hill to learn how to fight global warming and save the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.(Profile)
July 1, 2007... The ride is bumpy in the tiny subway car that runs through the bowels of Capitol Hill. Although Kate Sinner (above), a sophomore at Minnesota's College of Saint Benedict, struggles to maintain her footing in a pair of sophisticated black boots,...

Fly me to the clouds: NASA climate scientists venture into the crucible, the interior of massive, violent cumulonimbus clouds, to unravel more of the mysteries of global warming.(True Nature)(Column)
July 1, 2007... Traversing the high plains of northern Montana on a brilliant summer afternoon, our train chased its shadow across the wind-scoured stretch of high, wide, and lonesome between a town named Cut Bank and the end of the world. The air that...

Field trip no. 1: red phalarope.(IN THE WILD)(Brief article)(Photograph)
July 1, 2007... In summer at Barrow, Alaska, the sun never gets very far above the horizon, but it never sets either, and life goes on at a frenetic pace around the clock until the brief Arctic summer comes to an end. Here, in a quiet moment, a male red...

Joy of flies: before reaching for that swatter this summer, consider how our most misunderstood insects rival bees as crop pollinators and serve as powerful tools in a number of human pursuits, from solving crimes to unraveling the nature of life.
July 1, 2007... "God in His wisdom made the fly / And then forgot to tell us why." --OGDEN NASH We stand in clusters of half a dozen or so above the rocky beach fringing a small cove in eastern Maine, long-poled nets and killing jars at the ready....

Field trip no. 2: prothonotary warbler.(IN THE WILD)(Brief article)(Photograph)
July 1, 2007... Southern swamps often have all abundance of standing dead timber. As these trees decay, they may have a second life as nest sites for cavity-nesting birds. One such bird is the prothonotary warbler, one of only two warblers (out of more than 50...

The world without us: each day birds must run a deadly gantlet of cell towers, cats, and other modern perils. But would they thrive if humans suddenly vanished and nature healed itself? A scenario as compelling as this confronts us with our role in wiping out some species and taking responsibility for saving others.(PORTENTS)
July 1, 2007... A generation ago humans eluded nuclear annihilation; with luck we'll continue to dodge that and other mass terrors. Our latest crisis, however, springs from something far more subtle and insidious than atomic bombs. Has our very daily...

Losing ground: the top 10 common birds in decline.(Audubon COMMON BIRDS IN DECLINE: A State of the Birds Report Summer 2007)
July 1, 2007... 1. NORTHERN BOBWHITE COLINUS VIRGINIANUS Population decline: 31 million to 5.5 million (82 percent) ID: Chubby, robin-sized bird that runs along the ground in groups. Brown body and striped face (black-and-white facial stripes in...

Wakeup call: combing through 40 years of data, Audubon biologists find that today's common species may not be so common tomorrow--and that they're sending messages worth heeding.(Audubon COMMON BIRDS IN DECLINE: A State of the Birds Report Summer 2007)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... If you live in the East or Southwest, a bird like the eastern meadowlark is synonymous with summer, with its clear, comfortably familiar whistle and brilliant yellow plumage. But the skies are becoming a little quieter and the landscape a...

What you can do.(Audubon COMMON BIRDS IN DECLINE: A State of the Birds Report Summer 2007)
July 1, 2007... PRESERVE FARMLANDS Promote strong conservation provisions in the federal farm bill, especially the Conservation Reserve Program, which pays farmers to keep marginal farmlands idle and supports millions of acres of good bird habitat....

Field trip no. 3: white-fronted goose.(IN THE WILD)(Brief article)(Photograph)
July 1, 2007... All birds molt their feathers on a regular cycle, usually at least once per year: But waterfowl are unusual in that they molt all of their long wing feathers at once, becoming grounded for a few weeks until new flight feathers grow in....

Primate central: counting species has long been a feathery obsession, but now a world-renowned conservation biologist wants globetrotters to pursue other finds, from mouse lemurs to mountain gorillas, that are downright hairy.(ECOTRAVEL)(Russ Mittermeier)
July 1, 2007... On a weekend a short time ago, Russ Mittermeier, the peripatetic president of Conservation International, was visiting the dusty town of Farafangana, on the southeast coast of Madagascar. His official goal was to build ecotourism in what is...

I'll be a monkey's lister.
July 1, 2007... Just four countries--Brazil, Madagascar, Indonesia, and the Congo--account for 70 percent of all primate species. But primates (other than humans) also live in 88 additional countries, in Asia, South and Central America, and Africa. Many...

Field trip no. 4: red-bellied woodpecker.(IN THE WILD)(Brief article)(Photograph)
July 1, 2007... Many of our birds were named originally by scientists who examined them in the hand, not in the field, which helps to explain why this bird is called the red-bellied woodpecker. "Red-headed" might seem more apt, but that name and most...

Green guru: advice for the eco-minded.
July 1, 2007... I would like to create a small pond in my yard to attract wildlife, but what can I do to prevent mosquitoes from settling in and spreading West Nile virus? Barbara Mitchell, Annapolis, MD Whatever kind of splashy set-up you have in...

Step lightly, please: there are plenty of websites to help you calculate and expunge the carbon footprint created by your wanderlust. But is it best to just stay home? Sometimes.(Audubon Living)
July 1, 2007... The view from my campsite atop a 13,000-foot ridge in the Andes Mountains, just inside Peru's Manu National Park, is at once breathtaking and troubling. Out over the Amazon Basin, giant cotton tufts filled with vapor are rising, amassing for...

Last Stand: George Bird Grinnell, the Battle to Save the Buffalo, and the Birth of the New West.
July 1, 2007... By Michael Punke Smithsonian Books, 304 pages, $25.95 Michael Punke's meticulously researched Last Stand chronicles the transformation of the Great Plains from untouched wilderness in the mid-19th century to a land, less than 30 years...

Deafening silence: don't check your ears. The skies are really quieter with the big drop in songbirds, even if the news isn't making the front pages.(Silence of the Songbirds )(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Silence of the Songbirds By Bridget Stutchbury Walker & Company, 272 pages, $24.95 More than once lately, an elderly birder has complained to me about what he considered a personal affront imposed by the passing years. "I don't hear birds...

Seeking the Sacred Raven: Politics and Extinction on a Hawaiian Island.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... By Mark Jerome Wakers Island Press, 272 pages, $24.95 When Mark Jerome Waiters visited the Big Island of Hawaii in 1996, 14 'alala existed in the wild. In Seeking the Sacred Raven, he chronicles the decline of the onyx-feathered bird from...

The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion and Daring.(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... By Richard Preston Random House, 320 pages, $25.95 In his best-selling page-turner, The Hot Zone, Richard Preston put readers inside a biohazard suit searching for the source of the Ebola virus. Now Preston joins redwood-climbing scientists...

Rachel: The Story of Rachel Carson.(Brief article)(Children's review)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... By Amy Ehrlich/Illustrated by Wendell Minor Harcourt Inc, 32 pages, 516 (ages 5-8) In Rachel: The Story of Rachel Carson, Amy Ehrlich focuses on experiences that helped shape Carson's life as a scientist and contemplative nature lover. The...

Who Lives in an Alligator Hole?(Brief article)(Children's review)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... By Anne Rockwell/Illustrated by Lizzy Rockwell HarperCollins, 40 pages, $15.99 (ages 5-9) Marked by leathery hide and gnashing teeth, alligators may look primitive. But these reptiles aren't just a prehistoric vestige, as Anne Rockwell...

Salamander Rain: A Lake & Pond Journal.(Brief article)(Children's review)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... By Kristin Joy Pratt-Serafini Dawn Publishers, 32 pages, 516.95 (ages 6-12) Salamander Rain: A Lake & Pond Journal is one of a series of nature books written in the style of a child's diary. From amphibians to birds, crustaceans to...

Art of the wild.(Marshes: The Disappearing Edens)(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... For more than 30 years naturalist and photographer William Burt has prowled North America's wetlands, finding beauty in unexpected places. In Marshes: The Disappearing Edens (Yale University Press, 192 pages, $35), 90 stunning color photographs...

On wings and a prayer.(One Picture)(Primal Elegance)(Brief article)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... "I call this one 'Two Lovers and the Sun,'" says photographer Larry Fink. The subject is a praying mantis pas de deux on a goldenrod stem, shot on his Pennsylvania farm. And it is quite uncharacteristic of his work, for Fink is famous (or...